High End Compacts

With the announcement this week of the new Nikon Coolpix A, most camera manufacturers now have a high end fixed lens compact.

The best of the bunch is the Sony RX1, and the Fuji X100. I had a play with the RX1 a few months ago and apart from needing a viewfinder Sony have gotten just about everything right with this camera. Its expensive and not coming with a lens hood or battery charger is just ridiculous, but it is a very good camera. Personally I like the Fuji better, but then I have a thing about optical viewfinders.

Some manufacturers seem to get it but others are not quite there yet. The Nikon is a little disappointing. Focal length wise 28mm is a good option but is playing it safe. I would personally want 35mm or 24mm; 28mm is really a compromise option that I am not personally keen on. Then there is the lens speed, it really should have been f/2 at least. Still its good to see more options available, and once again Nikon have taken the brave option of not including a low pass filter, the anti-aliaising filter to stop moire.

As the cameras in phones get better and better, then compacts are going to have to go beyond just being a simple small sensor’ed point and shoot.